


It's Been A Long, Long Time

by fangirl_squee



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Thrilling Adventure Hour
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2015-02-03
Packaged: 2018-03-10 07:11:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3281492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl_squee/pseuds/fangirl_squee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain America!Sadie has longed to see her husband since she woke up from the ice. It's a 'be careful what you wish for' type of situation (CA2/Beyond Belief crossover).</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Been A Long, Long Time

**Author's Note:**

> This is the inevitable result of tumblr user camomility's post (http://camomility.tumblr.com/post/109615819637/i-think-the-thing-that-kills-me-most-about-the). The title is from a song from the CA2 soundtrack.
> 
> Thank to Maddie for looking it over.

Sometimes Sadie dreamed of him, tiny moments of their time together. It had felt endless then, but looking back on it now it felt so short.

 

A dream where they were at dinner, and Frank looked so happy in the candlelight that when she woke she thought she could almost hear his laugh bouncing off the bare walls of her SHIELD-approved apartment. Sometimes it's a more private moment - Frank gently laying her down in their bed, always so careful in case her hurt her fragile body. And she would smile and tell him not to worry so much, and he would tell her that he would _always_ worry, for as long as he lived (he’d made it sound like that would be forever).

 

Those dreams were the worst, even worse than when she dreamt of him falling away from her. At least then she didn’t wake up reaching for him, her hand hitting the cold, unused side of the bed with his name almost on her lips before she remembered that he wasn’t there.

 

When that happened she tried to keep herself occupied. Donna and Dave came by between missions occasionally, filling the house up with noise. The way they were with each other in the field reminded her a little of how she and Frank were with each other, the trust, all the things you left unsaid because the other person already knew.

 

She wished she’d said them anyway.

 

She stopped by to visit Basil in the hospital, and they would reminisce about old times. That could hurt more than it helped sometimes, when Basil slipped and forgot that Frank wasn’t there anymore. The first time it happened she’d had to cut her visit short, her chest aching so badly that she almost couldn’t breathe. She’d walked all the way home, every tree and house and person on the way reminding her of Frank.

 

That was how she’d started her jogging routine. She’d never cared for most physical exertion before the serum, but now it was like her body _needed_ to get out and do things. It was so far out of the realm of the things she and Frank had done together that it didn’t feel like she was abandoning the memory of him.

 

It was also how she’d met Lucy, lapping her twice before she introduced herself. Lucy’s time in the army had been been different than Sadie’s, but no less marked with loss.

 

Perhaps, thought Sadie, she’d stop by later, and speak to Lucy’s group. Something else to fill up the time.

 

Of course, she ended up not having a lot of free time after that. Fury at her house. A man (an assassin?) on the roof. Donna and Dave and the usb. Hydra, back again even though she’d sacrificed so much to stop it. The assassin from her apartment, back again.

 

The assassin’s mask falling off.

 

Sadie felt as though she couldn’t move, almost afraid to breathe in case is destroyed the image in front of her.

 

“Frankenstein?”

 

“Who the hell is Frankenstein?”

 

It was like a genie wish come true. Almost exactly what she wanted, except that it was awful.

 

“He looked right at me,” she said to Donna, later when they’d reached the safety of Lucy’s apartment, “He looked right at me, and he didn’t even know me.”

 

How could she describe the depths of how awful it felt? Even when she’d been a sickly little socialite, she’d had Frank. Frank, who’d had a terrible memory for names and faces but who’d always greeted her with a smile. Frank, who couldn’t remember the name of the bartender at the auction house but who would always remember her birthday, her shoe size, her liquor preference.

 

Even after the serum Frank had treated her just the same, adapting to leaning up to kiss her instead of down, still draping his coat over her shoulders when they went out for dinner even though the cold wasn’t a bother to her any more. Even though he had to tilt his head to look up at her, the look in his eyes was the same as ever.

 

That look hadn’t been there, when she’d seen him on the bridge.

 

Donna and Lucy thought of him as a threat now, another weapon being used against them. Sadie took a break from the planning, looking at her reflection in the little mirror over Lucy’s sink. To do this, she might have to fight Frank. To do this, she might even have to _hurt_ Frank. She couldn’t meet her own gaze.

 

The next time she saw Frank, he was blocking her path, his face impassive as he stared at her from across the metal walkway.

 

There was so much she wanted to say.

 

_Have you really been alive all this time?_

 

_Do you remember when I caught the flu and you brought me that knitted blanket and terrible whiskey?_

 

_You look so dreadfully tired._

 

Donna was in her ear, reminding her that they didn’t have much time, the helicarrier was going down, and _come on, Sadie get out of there, hurry._

 

“Frank,” said Sadie, wondering if he could even hear her over the noise of the engines, “Darling, please don’t make me do this.”

 

She’d never backed down from a fight in her life, not even when she was a head shorter that the men who were making _utterly unwelcome_ passes at her, but she wished she could back down from this one.

 

It was hard to tell if Frank’s punches were stronger than a normal man’s, or if she was just feeling them more because she couldn’t look away from his face. She could swear there was a tiny flicker of _something_ when he met her gaze.

 

She swayed on the rocking metal. They had to get off the helicarrier. She had to get them _both_ off the helicarrier.

 

“Franklyn fugue state Doyle, I am not going to fight you.” She dropped her shield, letting it clatter down the remains of the engine into the river below. “You are my _husband_.”

 

Frank leapt at her, enraged. “You’re my _mission_.”

 

She couldn’t fight him. He pulled back with arm, his erratic punches made even more wild by the swaying of the helicarrier.

 

“I’m with you to the final drink darling.”

 

Frank’s eyes went wide, his grip on the front of her uniform tightening even as he lowered his other arms.

 

The metal beneath them buckled, sending them both down, down, down, into the river.

 

The water was dark and cold, and Sadie felt so tired. She looked up, eyes stinging in the water. Frank was swimming towards her.

 

_Good_ , she thought, _it’s right that this is how it ends, with him beside me._

 

Things got a little blurry after that.

 

Donna said it was a miracle she survived. Sadie didn’t know if miracle is the right word - she remembered a strong grip hauling her from the water, someone beside her waiting until her breathing was regular, and a metal hand holding her’s.

 

Then again, maybe miracle was exactly the right word.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi: mariusperkins.tumblr.com/ask


End file.
